310 Mr Horner on the occurrence of the Megalkhthys 



largest and most perfect tooth that has yet been met with in the 

 coal itself ; those hitherto found at Stoneyhill, near Musselburgh, 

 being in general small. 



This cannel coal was brought from Halbeath in the county of 

 Fife, about two miles eastward of Dunfermline. I had not an 

 opportunity of examining the locality at the time I got the spe- 

 cimen, the weather not being then favourable for such a pur- 

 pose ; but through the kindness of Mr Bowes, surgeon in Dun- 

 fermline, I was referred to Mr Geddes, raining engineer, who is 

 intimately acquainted with the coal-fields in that part of Fife- 

 shire, and especially with the colliery from which this specimen 

 was obtained. He lias been so obliging as to give me a descrip- 

 tion of the spot, from which I have extracted the following par- 

 ticulars, as more particularly bearing upon the subject of this 

 communication. 



The country around Dunfermline is composed of the strati- 

 fied rocks of which the coal-measures usually consist, viz. alter- 

 nations of sandstones, slate-clay, bituminous shale, which is fre- 

 quently indurated, clay ironstone, and coal. There are, besides, 

 beds of limestone, which, as seen at Charleston, appears to form 

 the outer or high edge of the basin in which the coal-measures 

 are situated, and at a vast depth below the bed of coal in which 

 the fossil tooth was found. This is usually considered to be the 

 mountain or carboniferous limestone. The alternating sandstone 

 is of variable thickness, being in one bed as much as lOS feet, 

 and the slate-clay varies from a few inches to several feet. The 

 seams of coal are also of different dimensions, from five inches 

 to seven feet. They are chiefly distinguished with reference to 

 their economical applications ; and they include both cannel coal 

 and glance or blind coal. A section at the Halbeath colliery of 

 431 feet, gives 26 feet of workable coal. The general bearing 

 of the strata is between south-east and north-west, and the lower 

 beds have been ascertained to extend between two points which 

 are five miles asunder. The superior beds appear to have been 

 carried off by denudation in many places, after having been 

 thrown up and shattered by disturbing forces, which have occa- 

 sioned numerous faults. Although no trap-dikes appear, there 

 is an overlying mass of trap in the vicinity, which, I conceive, 

 is in all probability connected with a deep-seated dike. It is 



